Razzle Dazzle: A Journey into Dance

For all the new 2009 fans of Mitzi Gaynor - you are fortunate to be able to experience the multi-talents of this wonderful entertainer. You will now be able to remember her with wonder and admiration as do those of us who are the senior citizens of 2009<dwalburn

This movie is awesome for families that have kids in competition dance. For some, it may hit too close to home!

Very happy

Its my fault that i didnt read this carefullly, but it was not in english. So when my daughter was excited and ready to watch it, it was a huge disappointment. From now on , I will read the details.

A realistic doco of winning a dance competition between children dancing schools as expectations of parents were much higher than ambitions of contestants by themselves.

If you have a child who is learning to dance and goes to dance competitions, this film is for you. If you don't but would like to know what would it be if you had, then you should watch the film, too.The film "documents" a fictious dance studio's struggle to win the largest Australian dance competition. Ben Miller plays the owner/teacher/choreographer of the school, trying to do something different and also to make a difference. All characters in the film are slightly exaggerated caricatures of everyday people; you lough a lot but you never loose that vague feeling that it could actually be a real documentary.The film shows the less glamourous aspects of the competitive (children) dance world, yet it does it in a way that it is obvious that the makers do actually love it. It is a satire but a satire that does not want to hurt, it just wants to show that if you see a silver lining, there must be a cloud somewhere.It is a film for those who appreciate subtle humor and irony, prefer dialogue over visuals and character acting over action.

Hilarious without being slap-stick. A very Australian and very, very funny film about human nature and pushy parenting. Some beautiful dance moments and many make-you-cry-it-is-so-funny lines and scenes. Gets better and better as it runs and finishes strongly. One of my all-time favorites and certainly a top Aussie film. Buy it! Watch it! Don't miss it!!

This Australian mockumentary of dance competitions for young people is a pleasure to watch when it focuses on the girls dancing. Let's face it, few boys go in for dancing, so those that do get the limelight. We viewers can thrill in watching nimble cute girls jump and swirl and kick and so on along with their costumes.What made me chuckle and sometimes really laugh was the commentary given by Mr. Jonathan about his point of view in running the dance school. He is clearly a bit worn and weary of the struggle while still young so his strange remarks reflect his frustration. funnier still is his absolute belief that dance should show oppression and be acted out on stage. So sometimes he has his girls dance as oppressed workers of corporate factories with the mean corporate owners hitting them! Then he has some act as small animals with the others as mad scientists trying to experiment on them. The extreme leftwing goofiness is funny.In comtrast Miss Elizabeth has an old fashioned dance school with a few to performing in the style of musicals. It should be light and fluffy and happy with girls wearing pink and red and so on.These two schools are in competition for the the grand finals. Originally mr. Jonathan was in third place but good news! The second place group had a bus accident and their leader lost a foot!I suppose the director went to some real dance schools and real dance competitions because there seem to be at least a hundred dancing children in this film. The obsessed mothers are classic. The woman without kids who adopts them as a foster mother gets angry when she cannot return them as unsuitable.Unauitable means naturally not very good dancers! So finally she resorts to kidnapping an exceptionally good boy dancer for the troupe who razzle dazzles them all. Until the police come....If what I have told you this far seems amusing...off you go! If you know the series Death in Paradise, you'll be happy to see that Mr. Jonathan is the actor in a younger incarnation.

love this movie